The Beginning of War
by animaniacj
Summary: A look at the possible beginning of Pokemon.


Seventeen years. It's been seventeen years since the war. Seventeen years we were left wondering how the world was still standing. I don't even remember how many years since the animals stopped being animals, and became monsters.

It was China that saw the mutations first. When the asteroid hit, it was amazing that it hit practically nothing. It made an impact crater straight down, and all surrounding wildlife seemed to vanish into thin air. After two days, the animals came back, but not quite the same. There were black snakes with misshapen tails, bipedal rabbits, and giant praying mantis. Everyone was weary of the obviously dangerous ones, but that was only a misconception. All of them were dangerous. I think they figured out that we weren't the dominant species any more, one of them were.

And it was a 'them'. There seemed to be no network of compliance between the different species. There were plenty of documentations of separate factions fighting and slaughtering each other. It was a complete war zone over there, civilians were evacuated to safer distances, but what they didn't know, what _we_ didn't know, was that it was already everywhere.

I noticed it in the mice first. My daughter was completely engrossed in painting, coloring, doodling, anything that made something pretty. I had assumed that one of the mice that had been running through the neighborhood had stumbled into her yellow paints, so I went to grab the little fella to wash him off, but when I touched him, I was shocked and the thing skittered away.

I thought it was only static, but the small burns on my fingertips said otherwise. I thought it was weird and considered an exterminator to get rid of the new mouse, but the next day I saw a report on the thing. They said to report it to the authorities because the thing was of national interest and any other strange animals should also be reported. I was about to do just that when I heard our dog Swifty moan, which he never did. I went to see what was wrong and knew I wasn't calling anybody about the mouse.

When I saw our St. Bernard's coat change from a chestnut brown to a fiery red over the course of a week, I was scared, more for him than for us. Swifty had always been a playful dog, even after ten years, but for that entire week, he barely moved from his bed. When he did, it was only ever for food, water, or to relieve himself, and would go right back, whimpering the whole way.

When my wife and I were about to take Swifty to the vet for a checkup, hoping we could play off his coat change, we saw another news cast about the monsters in China, except they weren't only in China anymore. There were reports of purple pigs with tiny grey piglets with giant tails in America, blue bipedal crocodiles in India, and it was then followed by a brief list of dangerous animals seen locally, one of which was red dogs.

To say the least, we kept Swifty away from the vet, and a short bit after his color change, he was back up and energetic as ever. We had to keep him inside, however, so that our neighbors wouldn't report him and have him taken away. My daughter and Swifty were as close as siblings; I don't know what she would have done without him.

It was two days after Swifty was back on his feet that I found out _why_ red dogs were considered dangerous. My daughter and I were coming home from preschool when we saw smoke coming out of the kitchen window. I was concerned that my wife had forgotten something in the oven, but when I rushed in, I saw Swifty was hacking up fire onto the carpet. _Fire!_ As though he had made it inside him. I quickly put the fires out and rubbed Swifty's stomach, which always calmed him down before whenever something similar had happened, though he had usually gone through the garbage beforehand. He was calm, and I assured my daughter everything was fine, but it made me think.

I knew from the media that the monsters were dangerous, praying mantis with five-foot claws, poison spitting snakes, and whales bigger than have ever been recorded simply crushing ships in their wake, those were obvious threats, but my dog being able to breath fire? It was to weird, I had to learn more.

It wasn't often that I used the Internet for personal reasons, and apparently, I had missed a lot.

Much of it was obviously hype, like rainbow birds, living lava, and teleporting dinosaurs, but what the media hadn't told me, the Internet revealed. There were many reports where the rats in households have become significantly bigger, fiercer, and purple. Household cats have all started having short, white or grey hair, regardless of their species beforehand. When I came across Swifty's condition, I found I wasn't the only one who had fire problems. Many of the posts I found said that it wasn't good for them to keep the fire inside for to long and needed to let a little bit out every few days.

I also found others who had learned to teach their dogs to do tricks with the fire they made. In one of the countries that wasn't banning and collecting the changed animals, I found a video of a man who had his dog start his torches before juggling, and even getting the dog to coat itself in it and doing a flip over him at the end. I was amazed at what this meant for Swifty, but he seemed completely oblivious as he dropped his favorite ball at my feet. I smiled as I picked it up and scratched him behind his ears.

Aside from having to deal with Swifty hacking up fire every once and a while, things seemed to be good. If we ever had friends over, we were sure to keep Swifty upstairs in case they would have him reported. I would hear from my friends, the office, and even the media of stranger creatures being confirmed, and even being tamed. Some southeastern Africans were reported as taming an entire pack of rolling elephants.

Everything was docile for a while. More and more news of tamed animals were coming in from around the world and restrictions on owning one were being lifted every day. When the day came that private owning of 'exotic' animals was legal, I took Swifty out on his first walk in months.

Some backed away from him, seeing Swifty as another monster, but more came to see what he was like. And Swifty, being his energetic self, was happy for the attention from those who gave it. There were others who knew what Swifty had become, and when they asked about his fire I simply told them that it had been managed. I had thought the ban lift was to make civilians feel safer, it was two days after that first walk when I found out why they weren't banned any more.

A knock came at the door and Swifty went to meet whomever it was. When I opened the door, the only thing I remember was seeing a giant butterfly before I feel over unconscious. When I awoke I was in a blank white room in a chair that was bolted to the ground with my leg chained to it. Swifty was also there, but he was asleep. I suppose they were watching me somehow because not two minutes later one of the corners opened to show it was a camouflaged door and a man in black came in. It was a prim and proper suit with matching shoes. He came in along with one of the white cats I had seen as reported monsters, but this one had to be like Swifty because it smoothly came in behind the man and curled up at his feet when he stood in front of me.

"Mr. Katsura, do you know why you're here?" The man asked me, but continued without an answer. "You are here because you are one in the minority of people who have been able to tame these beasts." He said as he crouched down and stroked his cat.

"Swifty isn't a beast! He's my dog!" I snapped at the man, which only made him smirk.

"Of course 'Swifty' is. He also happens to be one of many that are currently trying to kill the human race. Oh yes," He replied to my look of surprise. "You might not know, in fact many don't, but we're in a global scale war. These things know we aren't a threat by ourselves, that's why they fought each other in China. Then they noticed us with weaponry, and let's just say it hasn't been easy since then."

"So what do you want with me and Swifty?" I glared.

"It's not what I want Mr. Katsura, it's what the world needs. There's an old saying, 'fight fire with fire'. That is what we need from you and your 'dog', to fight a good fight."

"That's what we have armies for, isn't it?" I asked, astonished. I had never seen myself as a soldier at that point, I still don't.

"They can only do so much against these things. When this all started, we were smart enough to keep an eye on these monsters. It's a miracle how some of these monsters are made of, even more amazing that others can cut them down with ease. There's also the cost of running an army Mr. Katsura. We need to feed, house, and prep an army. The things we are fighting simply need to eat and sleep, their bodies being perfectible acceptable weapons." The man stood up and made his way to the door, his cat following obediently. "We don't mean to hold you here, or even throw you into the fray without training, but there only so many like you Mr. Katsura." With that, the door opened from the out side.

"Wait!" I shouted before the door shut. The man put his foot in the door, looking over his shoulder through the crack. "Will I be able to at least talk to my family?"

The man blinked a few times in rapid succession. "Yes." He said cautiously.

"Then I'll do it." I said as I stood, the rattling of the chain on my foot seeming to star Swifty.

"Excellent." The man smiled. Two men in straight black body suits with eye obscuring hats came in and undid the shackle. Swifty growled at the two, making them shrink back a little, but I pet him reassuringly. "He already seems to know what to do." The man continued to smirk.

I walked up to the man with determination, almost trying to intimidate him, which didn't work. "What's your name?" I asked.

"John Giovanni." He said as he extended a hand. I took it and squeezed, which he returned in kind with a grin. "I think we'll be able to work together swimmingly."


End file.
